The problem with upside-down cities is not the architecture, but the furniture.
"This is outrageous," Vampher muttered, floating sideways into a teacup chair bolted to the ceiling — which, in this city, was technically the floor.
"It's all very surreal," Hiro said, trying to sit on a floating table that refused to acknowledge his existence. "Also, I think my blood's confused."
"Gravity's optional here," Dee said cheerfully, striding along an invisible path that curved in and out of reality. "Welcome to Naar'vyn — the Hanging City of Lost Perspectives. Built by the Mad Weavers after someone tried to reverse gravity to win a drinking contest."
"...Did they win?" Vampher asked.
"No. But they did become a religious icon."
The Prophet That Did Not Want to Be Found
They found him — eventually — hanging upside-down from a balcony made of bone-horns and musical wind.
He was muttering to himself, painting on a scroll that unrolled into nothingness.
"Prophet Karn," Dee called.
"I told you!" Karn screamed. "I don't do prophecies anymore! I'm retired! Retired, you hear me?! I grow tomatoes now!"
"You're holding a brush made of future," Hiro pointed out.
"It's cursed!" Karn wailed. "It only paints what's going to happen. Like this—"
He flipped the scroll around.
The painting showed the three of them… being eaten by a creature made entirely of tangled yarn.
"Oh," Vampher said. "Is it too late to back out of this quest?"
Karn sighed and climbed down — up? — the wall. "Listen. I told the gods to leave me alone. Then I told Dee to stop time-traveling near my kitchen. And now you're here."
"I made your cat immortal," Dee said.
"He hates you for it."
The cat — a floating, translucent furball named Meowseidon — glared from the shadows, then exploded into sparkles. It did that sometimes.
"Just give us a lead," Hiro said. "Anything about the Seals."
Karn groaned. "Fine. But only because your presence is making my tomatoes rot backward in time."
He pointed to the painting again — this time, to a small figure next to the yarn-monster.
"A guardian," he whispered. "Of the Fourth Seal. But it's not a beast. It's a mind. A being of thread, born from laughter and lies. A creature of puns."
Everyone went silent.
"...A pun monster?" Vampher asked.
Karn nodded grimly.
"Made of thread?"
Karn nodded again.
"I hate this quest," Vampher muttered.
The Threadwood Forest
It was not a forest.
It was a loom.
Thousands of towering spindles, weaving colored threads through floating bark and whispering wind, stretched from horizon to horizon. Every step echoed like a joke forgotten at the wrong time.
Somewhere between two shimmering weft-paths, it waited.
They heard it before they saw it.
"Did you hear about the magic carpet? It swept the competition!"
"Oh no," Hiro said, clutching his face.
"I once knew a weaver who couldn't focus," the voice continued. "He had knotty thoughts!"
"Stop it," Vampher growled.
Then it slithered from the threads — a multi-eyed, multicolored tangle of yarn, with a hat shaped like an exclamation mark.
"I am The Pundamental Thread!" it roared. "Pun-ishing sinners since the First Weave!"
Dee whispered, "This is worse than Kassor."
"Hey now," the creature said, wiggling its tassels. "You want a piece of me, or should I spool it back?"
Hiro looked up. "We're here for the Fourth Seal. Can you let us pass?"
"Ohhh," the Pundamental Thread hissed. "A test, then! Unravel this riddle — and the path is yours."
The Riddle
"I twist and turn, and often tie,
I bind your fate yet never die.
I cross your hands, your thoughts, your time,
I'm part of every woven rhyme.
What am I?"
They all stared.
"...Thread," Hiro said.
"Correct!" the Thread bellowed, and immediately burst into a rain of confetti. "You win! Take the Seal! Also, would you like a coupon for 30% off magical sewing supplies?"
A glowing orb stitched from golden mana dropped into Dee's hands. The Fourth Seal.
Vampher blinked. "That was… easy?"
"I'm not evil," the Thread said. "Just twisted."
Everyone groaned.
Echoes Stir
Far away, in the Obsidian Court, the veiled Echo jolted.
"They have the Fourth," it hissed.
The mirror cracked deeper. Reality winced.
"Unravel them."
Threads across the world began to twitch.
Back in Naar'vyn
The trio returned to Karn's upside-down balcony. He was plucking string-beans from a levitating vine.
"We got it," Hiro said, handing him the coupon instead of the Seal.
Karn studied the voucher. "...This expires next week."
Dee grinned. "So do we, probably."
"Good luck," Karn said, turning away. "You'll need it."
Vampher looked at Dee. "Where to next?"
Dee smiled, eyes glittering with centuries of trouble.
"To the Ruins of Neverwas. Where time breaks, and truth has been outlawed."
Hiro sighed. "Of course it has."